On Modern Poetry: From Theory to Total Criticism

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All too often, the history of poetry criticism in the 20th Century is told as a tale of two sides. While Lit crit' pored over the author's every line, Theory' stood on the shoulder of texts to gaze into the metaphysical mists. Drawing on the key insights of both Lit crit and Theory, On Modern Poetry tries to get beyond the opposition between them, proposing instead a total criticism' that draws on all resources available. It combines analytic irony' with imaginative empathy' in order to generate fresh insights. The themes discussed in the first part of the book include tradition, voice, rhyme, rhetoric, and objects, bringing in critics such as Eliot, Heidegger, Empson, Blackmur, and De Man. The second part examines texts by Tennyson, Symons, Hopkins, Larkin and Prynne. An original exploration of poetry and its criticism, On Modern Poetry is an essential guide for readers and students at all levels.

Reviews

Robert Smith's On Modern Poetry dazzles and illuminates, as does poetry itself. The book is an exciting intervention in poetic criticism, and the zest with which the book apprehends as well as comprehends its material will ensure that all kinds of readers interested in poetry will be enthused to think more carefully about its idioms, strange logics, and its genres. In bringing together intuitive and intellectual attention without simply pre-empting the distinction or its affects, the book achieves what it sets out to do. -- Dr Anthony Mellors, Reader in Poetry and Poetics, Birmingham City University, UK
Smith's writing moves with an ease and elegance that can belie the, sometimes breath-taking, flair, reach and focus of his readings... it has much to recommend it to a wide audience, from general readers, to students, to specialists.' -- Dr Clare Connors, University of East Anglia, UK
Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. -- R.T. Prus, Southeastern Oklahoma State University * CHOICE *

Author Bio

Robert Rowland Smith is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, UK. He is the author of Derrida and Autobiography and Death-Drive: Freudian Hauntings in Literature and Art, as well as two works of popular philosophy - Breakfast with Socrates: The Philosophy of Everyday Life and Driving with Plato: the Meaning of Life's Milestones. A frequent contributor to BBC radio and television, he is also a columnist and reviewer for the Sunday Times.